At a recent political forum hosted by the Faulkner County Leadership Institute and the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce these candidate squared off on this issue. David Keith, moderator the event, asked both candidates what they would do to collect outstanding fines and debts owed to the county. Log Cabin reporter Rachel Parker, who covered the event, wrote this about they responses:
Elliott said he wants to address the issue immediately and begin serving arrest warrants, now that the new jail is finished. Once the county begins arresting people for unpaid fines, others may come forward voluntarily to pay, he said.
Byrd said he would look at other options besides incarcerating the offenders because jail space is needed for violent offenders. He said he would work with judges and attorneys to look into putting liens on offenders' property and garnishing their paychecks.
Now before we examine these approaches to the problem lets see how bad the problem really is. Currently there are 3,437 people owing a total of $10,004,416 in delinquent fines. If that wasn't enough we also have to consider the 11,287 outstanding misdemeanor warrants and 6,437 outstanding felony warrants. To say the least we are way behind. Criminals in this county seem to have the upper hand while our law enforcement and judicial officials are drowning in this sea of growing numbers. Clearly something must be done to alleviate this problem.
Now let's look at the candidates solutions to this growing problem. Elliott says he wants to immediately start incarcerating these delinquent offenders for non-compliance and hope others come forward and pay. While this idea sounds reasonable at first, let's just put 'em in jail, that'll learn 'em, but considering the limited jail space this idea has many faults. Besides shaming them into compliance by publishing their names hasn't worked, scaring them into compliance will not work either. Wishing and hoping has already been done with very poor results, Elliott really missed the mark on this one.
Byrd's idea however shows some real promise. Byrd wants the county to hire an attorney on salary who does nothing more than go after these delinquents by attaching liens to their properties, garnishing wages, and garnishing tax returns. While this idea sounds like what Within Sight Collections was trying to do however it differs in one very important way, all the money collected will go to the county rather than a percentage of it. The law says that a portion of all fines must go to the court and that portion cannot be used for any other purpose. This means that a collection agency cannot claim any part of the court's money.
In Byrd's plan all the money goes to it's rightful place while the county pays only for the attorney's salary, additional court costs and fees would be attached to the fine holder's balance. Another advantage to this plan would be it does not put any extra burden on the jails helping them remain open, the last thing we need is to fill them up once again with non-compliant fine holders. Byrd wins this one with some creative thinking.
